When I was recently searching Amazon for some PD leadership books, Fullan was one of the names that came to mind. Over spring break I read his Change Leader: Learning to Do What Matters Most. When I first pulled it out of the box, I thought that I probably had not selected the best of all of his available books for my purpose. I realized that there was a pretty heavy focus on the business world, rather than being mainly an education leadership book. However, as I started to read, I was glad that I got this book. The About the Author section stated, "Fullan bases his work on policy and practice drawn from both the public and private sectors, finding and increasing convergence in the best of this literature," (p. xvii), and that was apparent throughout the text. Even when it was a business example, there was so much cross-over into educational context relevancy.
After a brief preface to frame the book, Fullan broke this book, which is the third in a set of three books he wrote for Jossey-Bass, into seven chapters. Each chapter highlights core practices of change leaders. He illustrates why each is vital, while always emphasizing that the different components are interrelated and even though they appear simple, it can be complex. There were also links to texts that I have previously read, both directly (such as Pink's Drive) and indirectly. Fullan included a self-assessment on page 63 to support self-reflection and to facilitate implications for future practice. What I appreciated most about the book was the constant emphasis once again on the merits of building capacity, as well as highlighting the value in professional experiences to drive practice. He had many statements to prompt thoughts about the role of theory, research, and practice.
Fullan's books are direct and to the point, written in an easy to read/clearly organized format, thought provoking, and inspiring. While reading this book, I made a note of one of his earlier books that he referenced that I wanted to read, All Systems Go. Then I received a Teachers College Press catalog in the mail and saw that he and Andy Hargreaves (who was actually a co-author of What's Worth Fighting For in Your School? as well) have a new book that was just released in March, Professional Capital: Transforming Teaching in Every School. One of my colleagues who was very familiar with Fullan before this summer talked about how his books have a lot of cross-over or ideas that are restated. Based on the titles and thinking about core ideas in the two I have already read, I can see how that is the case. And yet, I still added both to my Amazon cart and will be receiving them this week. There's just something about his voice and the examples he uses that make so much sense. I know that there is still a lot that I can learn with him by reading his books.
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